Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts - Trump Has a Plan for the Midterms, SCOTUS May Help

On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick checks in with Protect Democracy co-founder Ian Bassin about the United States’ speedy retreat from democracy, and how lawyers seeking to protect the constitution are adapting their strategies for Trump 2.0. While Trump’s second term is following an authoritarian playbook, some courts are acting as speed bumps, while others (we’re looking at you, SCOTUS), are increasingly pickled in right-wing brine. The velocity of America’s descent into illiberalism is startling and dangerous, but Bassin argues it is also potentially self-defeating, thanks to Trump’s historic unpopularity that is growing faster than his ability to consolidate power. The two discuss Protect Democracy’s shift from a litigation-heavy strategy to combining court fights with coalition-building, and Ian outlines threats to the 2026 elections—“deceive, disrupt, deny”—including efforts like the SAVE Act and why the President’s decision to deploy ICE to stand around in airports around the country is a clear effort to normalize their presence at polling places in November. But he also stresses that overwhelming participation and public organizing are the ultimate backstops if election results are contested.

Suggested reading: protectdemocracy.org/executive-override/

Want more Amicus? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes with exclusive legal analysis. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(4958)

What Next - Off-the-Record: Weddings by Kremlev

Don Trump Jr.’s wedding had everything: a private island, fireworks, a Funfetti cake airlifted in from Florida—everything but the groom’s dad. But that’s the advantage of being rich, you can pay for t...

18 Sep 3min

What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future - But HOW Might A.I. Kill Us All?

Why did the “Hugging Face Incident” scare A.I. researchers so much? And if they are so confident artificial intelligence needs to be slowed down, why aren’t they slowing it down?Guest: Nate Soares, Pr...

18 Sep 30min

Political Gabfest - Kremlin Wedding Present

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss whether this week's Supreme Court intervention rejecting Trump's mail-in ballot restrictions will prevent midterm chaos, explore the f...

17 Sep 1h 3min

What Next - Who's Interfering in the Election Now

Those concerned that the Trump administration will interfere with the upcoming midterm elections can breathe a little easier this week, as the Supreme Court threw out their plan to have the Post Offic...

17 Sep 36min

ICYMI - Forbidden Alphas & Cursed Billionaires: The Rise Of Microdramas

Pregnant werewolves and surprise quadruplets are just two of the tropes you might find while watching what might be the next evolution of TV: vertical microdramas. Told in 90 second clips, these stori...

16 Sep 34min

What Next - JD Vance Enters the Mommy Wars

Childcare is expensive and who wouldn’t want to spend more time with their kids? Giving parents money to stay home, on its face, would seem to make sense. But a proposal from the Trump administration ...

16 Sep 26min

Slate Money - Money Talks: The Zero-sum Mistake

In this Money Talks: Roy Swan joins Elizabeth Spiers to turn the assumption of a zero-sum economy on its head. Swan, the director of the Ford Foundation’s mission investments program, explains why the...

15 Sep 33min

What Next - Is Trump Losing His Touch?

The GOP just held a midterm convention that was centered around the one thing their base seems to really like: Donald Trump. The only problem is that pretty much everyone outside the GOP is blaming Tr...

15 Sep 30min